Download PDF of this full issue: v17n3.pdf (13.7 MB)

In The Cu Chi Tunnel System

By Edward Damato

Cu Chi is a district 30 kilometers northwest of Ho Chi Minh City on Highway #1. Its towns and villages, today 12 years after the war ended are peaceful. Its rural farmlands are green with produce. Highway #1 is lined with thousands of newly planted eucalyptus trees. Villagers go about their business of bicycle and foot, and people loll about in the square.

It is hard to believe that Cu Chi is the area of Vietnam that was the most bombed and defoliated area in the war. For each person in the district 1.5 million pounds of bombs were dropped—3 kilograms of bombs per square meter. Of 16,000 Vietnamese in battle, 10,000 were killed. One of three families had a wartime death.

Cu Chi, then, was more than just another district. It was also home to one of the most extraordinary systems of tunnels every built. These tunnels were used by the People's Liberation Army and village defense forces as a military complex and a refuge from the American military.

Originally the tunnels were built during the war with the French in the late '40s and early '50s, and grew to huge lengths during the '60s and '70s during the war with the tunnels were 350 kilometers long with the deepest sections over 7 meters. They virtually served as underground base camps. Interlocking caches of weapons and explosives, food, water wells, first aid stations, air raid shellers, sleeping chambers, and escape and evasion entrances and exits.

Even kitchens were situated underground using "hoang cam" stoves with small tunnels for the smoke to be dispersed without detection from above.

At some points the tunnel networks went directly below the base camp of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division (what the U.S. forces called Cu Chi). There were also Vietnamese base camps situated near the French-owned Michelin rubber plantations which operated during the war and went untouched by American bombing.

The tunnels were constant targets of American forces. Many tunnel rats gave their lives and limbs trying to destroy the tunnels. Even dogs were used to ferret out the trap doors. While B-52's did some damage, nothing proved to break the tunnel system which General William Westmoreland later admitted was undestroyable. Even though the tunnels were used against American GI's, many had a great administration for the skills of the tunnel builders.

Our guide at Cu Chi recounted tales of heroism by Vietnamese including a story about one mother, Nguyen Thi Ranh, who had 10 members of her family killed by U.S. forces. She also bragged to us about leaders of Vietnam who lived in the district: Nguyen Van Linh, Mai Chi Tho and Vo Kan Kiet. Her pride in Cu Chi and the tunnels was evident.

But nothing could have been more graphic to us than having the chance actually to crawl through 50 meters of tunnel to appreciate the engineering skills of the builders of the tunnels of Cu Chi.

First our guide went through a tiny entrance hole in the ground, followed by myself, Tom, Dennis, and Barry. We dropped several feet and crawled through a small tunnel and around a bend. All light disappeared and a deafening silence took hold of us as we proceeded in total darkness.

Our guide snapped on a flashlight so we could see. As the tunnel twisted and turned, and we climbed up and lowered ourselves through it, we passed the light back and forth so the rear could catch up. At ties there was blackness; at times the light caught thousands of crawling insects who shared the tunnel with us.

As we crawled I realized the heat was unbearable. My shirt was drenched in sweat, in part because of fear and exhilaration, but also because of the effort to drag this 40-year old body through this museum of war.

The tunnel seemed interminable. Talking was replaced by silence as we worked our way forward, inch by inch. When I thought my lungs would burst, the guide rounded a turn and I saw the end was near.

In an explosion of happiness I couldn't help but stop and turn back to yell at my fellow "tunnel rats," "Hey guys, I see the light at the end of the tunnel."

While staying in Ho Chi Minh City we went to the Nationalities Fair. A permanent government program. the cultural event moves from city to city extolling the diversity of the different ethnic cultures and their different contributions to Vietnam. It resembles a state or county fair in its mood, with games and rides as well as booths and displays. We first visited a cultural display which explored musical instruments and sounds of the 54 minorities which make up photos of Chinese heroes and contributions to modern Vietnam.

Replica houses, water chimes almost a block long, local dance groups and more displays covered the grounds. We met a former captain with the National Liberation Front who was anxious to discuss events with us, exchange war stories and share tea and food.

When we discovered we were looking for posters and banners to bring home to the U.S. with us, but that we were having no luck finding them, he set up an appointment to meet us at his office the following day. This was our final meeting of the trip and one of the most memorable.

We were ushered into a room filled with museum pieces at the Cultural and Information Office of Ho Chi Minh City. Seated formally, we met Mr Nguyen Van Tong, Director of the Office and former political commander of the 9th NLF Division; Dang Dac Chung, Chief of Bureau and ex-NLF Captain; and from yesterday, Mr Pham Son Lan who had been underground in Saigon from 1969 to '73 in intelligence, escaping the Phoenix program and death.

We were given coconut milk still in the nuts. Mr Nguyen had been underground for 18 years, rising to divisional command of one of the toughest NLF units in southern Vietnam. He presented us with cultural posters as gifts, and a huge banner commemorating the 12th anniversary clearly stayed up the night before making these items as gifts for us to take home.

Mr Nguyen's parting statement was poignant: "We used to wear different uniforms and fight and kill each other in the war. Now we don't wear uniforms, we are just veterans of that same war. But we do have tasks as veterans to insure an end to the arms race and nuclear holocaust, to insure that 'another Vietnam' does not occur in Central America, and finally to oppose apartheid in South Africa."

—Edward Damato
VVAW New York